


This is How it Goes

by Blue_Kat



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 14:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12728724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Kat/pseuds/Blue_Kat
Summary: The story of how the Vagabond joins the Fake AH crew, the story of how Ryan finds what he didn't know he was looking for.





	This is How it Goes

So here’s how it goes. Ryan (because he is Ryan; it’s what he keeps trying to assure himself when he stares at the mask every morning before putting it on) does his job and he does it well. Sometimes you just gotta kill a guy, sometimes people want it to be a little more elaborate. All the depraved stories of things the Vagabond has done? Ryan’s innocent of those. He’s just the monkey. The organ grinder tells him what to do and he does it.   
  


Without question.   
  


Provided, of course, the organ grinder pays well enough. He doesn’t do peanuts, he’s an expensive monkey like that.

  
And here’s the thing, he’s expensive. And there’s  _ reasons _ for that. A goddamn cemetery's worth of reasons for that.

  
So some cocky british prick coming to offer him a job with no guarantee of pay and a long term contract? The Vagabond laughs in his face. Tells the kid (because here’s the thing, he’s definitely no more than a kid) to fuck off, that he’s lucky his ill manners didn’t earn him a one way ticket to the LSPD morgue.

  
But... that’s the thing. That’s not Ryan. That’s the Vagabond when he’s paid. When he’s given a face, sometimes just a name, fifty percent of the money in advance and off he goes.   
  


The kid’s so young, what the hell got him into a life like theirs? And who the hell would be twisted enough to want a kid like that dead?   
  


Apparently someone. The kid’s name is Gavin. The kid’s crew is starting to rise. And Gavin’s ill manners have earnt him a ticket to the morgue. 

 

Belovedly delivered by the Vagabond.   
  


And here’s the thing, it makes Ryan sick to his stomach. But he can’t say no.

 

With the kind of money they’re offering he could retire, live a normal life. Did he want a normal life?

 

So here’s how it goes. Gavin comes out of a bar, arm slung over some short guy’s shoulder. Gavin’s drunk. Gavin’s grinning. It’s infectious, shorty matching Gavin’s smile. Whatever the kid’s saying, he’s clearly persuasive.

  
But the Vagabond sees the kid with red curls trailing behind them both. A just in case.  _ Insurance _ . If shit goes wrong, shorty won’t be making it home in one piece.

 

So here’s how it goes. Gavin’s drunk. The red headed kid is hanging back, is easy to take out without the blond noticing. Shorty was oblivious anyway. He didn’t kill red head, that wasn’t what he was paid to do. Nor what Ryan wanted to do.

  
He grabs Gavin by his collar, dragging him backwards, letting him fall to the tarmac in a heap.   
Lets Shorty's eyes see the mask, the ice cold stare. Tells Shorty to "walk away if you know what’s good for you."

  
But Shorty doesn’t.

  
So here’s how it goes, Ryan puts a bullet in his leg, it’s not quiet and there’s no guarantee it’s non-lethal, but it’s how it goes.

 

He bundles Gavin into the trunk of his car. Drives to the river and hauls the kid out, marches him down to the edge of the dark water. The kid’s terrified, easy confidence gone, replaced by all consuming fear.

 

There’s a part of the Vagabond that thinks  _ good _ .

 

There’s a part of Ryan that thinks  _ what have we become _ .

 

And Gavin, this stupid british kid, a gun at his head, held by the goddamn  _ Vagabond _ , says to Ryan, "that job offers still open you know. You wouldn’t have to do anything you don’t choose to anymore."

 

And Ryan laughs. He can’t help it. It’s bitter and cold and heart wrenching. When did he ever have a choice?

 

When did he ever  _ choose _ to be this?   
  


His father long gone.   
  


His mama rolling in her grave at the sight of him now.   
  


He didn’t recognise himself anymore.   
  


When did he ever have a choice?

 

And here’s the thing, Gavin  _ saw _ . Gavin knew, maybe from the moment he sat down next to Ryan in the bar, (Ryan drinking diet coke through his mask with a straw, Gavin ordered a vodka and coke) he knew that Ryan was trapped.

 

"Says who?" Ryan snarls, biting back the tears, fighting the lump in his throat. "You can’t guarantee shit!"

 

And Gavin smiles. Gun to his head, and he fucking  _ smiles _ .

 

"I can guarantee you the same job i have: running with Ramsey. I can guarantee you a fair share. I can guarantee you some bloody  _ fun _ ."

 

And here’s the thing, Ryan’s heard about the Fakes on the news. The Vagabond has heard the underground gossip. Lunatic missions and ridiculous stunts. All in the name of shenanigans and yet somehow the fucks make money. Make a clean getaway. Make some fucking havoc.

 

And Ryan  _ wants _ that. He’s sick of being an emotionless killer. Sick of doing other people's dirty work.

 

He lowers his gun. He looks at Gavin, all confident smile now, assured body language offset by the way hes shivering from cold, his thin dress shirt doesn’t protect him from the elements.

  
Ryan bundles him into the passenger seat. Slips in and starts driving.

  
"We're based-"   
  


"I know where I’m going."

 

And here's how it goes. He’s greeted by guns trained on him, Gavin waltzing out of his car and being hugged by a concerned Ramsey. Leaving Ryan to face a pissed Patillo and the red headed kid, he’s even angrier when he’s got a gun in his hands. Looks ready to unload on Ryan then and there if he so much as  _ thinks _ of trying anything.

 

And then Gavin opens the door for Ryan, pulls him out, practically bouncing and laughing. Introduces Ryan as having taken their offer of employment.

 

Nobody relaxes. And why should they? He’d rejected that offer months before. Why would he suddenly change his mind? That ship had sailed.

 

But Ramsey’s looking at him. A buyer looking over a prize horse for sale. Says "alright" and takes Ryan to his office. Sits him down. Asks "what do you want Vagabond?"

  
And the Vagabond takes a breath, looks at Ramsey, really looks. At the handlebar moustache and three piece suit, the gun at his hip, the guarded expression. But Ryan looks past that to the quick but tired eyes, the creases in the dress shirt, the slight droop of his shoulders. He’s tired, already so tired. He’s ambitious though, there’s no doubt about that, and he needs someone like Ryan. All quiet menace and danger. But he’ll never admit that. Wants to see the choice Ryan makes on his own.

 

And here’s how it goes. Ryan doesn’t feel secure. Doesn’t feel safe. Doesn’t want to show them  _ Ryan _ but he knows what he wants.   
  


"I want a choice."

 

So here’s how it goes. Ramsey... Geoff, nods. Gives him a job and welcomes him to the crew.   
  


Jack slowly accepts him. Slowly realises that he’s not all bad. Though Ryan grows to be a little shit if he can get away with it.

  
Jeremy (Shorty) joins them a few weeks later. Once his leg’s healed enough for him to get back to working. Ryan still feels a guilty over the wound, but Jeremy bears no ill will.

  
Michael’s the red head. Michael mistrusts him, doesn’t like his mask or his lack of a name past Vagabond. Maybe that’s why Michael’s the first to know. Ryan being a little shit, stealing the lad’s bacon, the yell of "Vagabond!" just didn’t have a good ring to it.   
  


So of course Ryan rips off his mask, toothed grin on his painted face as he howls out, "not Vagabond! That was all Ryan baby!"

  
Bad idea really. Ryan is much catchier to yell.   
  


Gavin avoids him. It hurts at first, but he has the others and heists keeping him busy. Eventually Gavin settles, becomes more comfortable around him. Starts asking ridiculous hypotheticals and making stupid bets. Ryan shoots them down, somehow still humouring the lad as he calls him dumb. Gavin grinning all the while. And then it’s a problem of making the lad leave him alone. It’s only when Ryan’s really settled in proper, no question of his status as one of them, that he finds out why. Of how shit scared Gavin was of him. Even in that moment at the very beginning when he pulled him from the car, the poor lad was terrified. He hid it well.

 

And that’s how it goes. The Fakes rise and rise and rise. Until there’s no one left above them. They become notorious. They become rich and successful. They become a family.

  
And here’s the thing, Ryan wouldn’t choose to have it any other way.

 

**Author's Note:**

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